Here’s my analysis of the murder of Sir Carew Danvers in Robert Louis Stevensons’sÂ Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde– much debated ( and contested) with my GCSE English students!Â Nearly a year later, in the month of October, 18â, London was startled by a crime of singula

Sometimes students worry about attaining depth in their creative and analytical writing. They feel their understanding of character, in particular, may remain quite conventional or superficial and that this undermines the quality of their writing. Here’s an easy way to add depth

Macbeth Act 3 Scene 4: How is the relationship been Macbeth and his wife presented? (Select which word fits your interpretation most effectively). The extract opens with Lady Macbeth condemning/humiliating/reprimanding/desperately questioning her husband’s almost hysteric

Tell me a story to soothe my head. Tell me a January ghost story, please. So this is what she heard more or less. A ghost story in January, the month of new beginnings. The house was on the second row at the beach. Not as extravagant as some, but still beautiful and spacious, i

Â A Ghost Story for January! Â “He scudded past the golden maple and the bay tree, and there they all were in the summer- house which was home. And he took a flying leap up the steps and was among them. Â It was there that Calloway found him next morning. He must indeed have run

Macbeth Act 2 Scene 2. LADY MACBETH Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there:

LADY MACBETH Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time, Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst th

A Christmas Carol directed by Roland Metcalf will be on Tuesday 12th December Salford University at 7pm and Wednesday 13th at 7pm in Media City at the Digital Performance Lab. Tickets are Â£5 for adults and Â£2 concessions. Box office number is 01612956019 or alternatively visitÂ https:/

Here’s a fun creative writing exercise. It involves Free writing and caged lifts! This exerciseÂ works best if you write using a timer. Working against the clock liberates your mind from overthinking and perfectionism, both the dangerous enemies of creativity!Â Writing freely is

âThat was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of tho

I must say a few words about NaNoWriMo. It has boosted my writing productivity enormously and is great fun too! Â NaNoWriMo is the worldwide,Â motivational competition to write a 50000-word novel in the month of November. You just sign up and log in to your proposed novel title (and no

Why English Tuition boosts your grades and your ability to think more productively.Â We all speak differently but when we write that uniqueness may be lost. We often tryÂ to write with an ‘academic’Â voice that doesn’t feel like our own, which we may hope will earn us

Shyness affects us all and I have written about confidence and shyness on Tusitala several times. There are lots of tools that we can all use to boost our self-belief, particularlyÂ when we are in new situations like University!Â I have just finished a superb course on Creative

Suspense: How do you analyse suspense in an extract? (GCSE English) Here are a few questions that produce stimulating answers to any question about suspense or tension. RememberÂ suspense is created through aÂ combination of elements. Always identify the conflicts you can see in a pas

The figure in these two phases haunted the lawyer all night; and if at any time he dozed over, it was but to see it glide more stealthily through sleeping houses, or move the more swiftly and still the more swiftly, even to dizziness, through wider labyrinths of lamplighted city, and

What are the benefits of English Tuition? How can Private English Tuition benefit YOU?Â There are THREE important reasons that Private English Tuition benefits students.Â These reasonsÂ create positive change: they are transformative for students. You can ask all the questions you want

Mr. Utterson was sitting by his fireside one evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole. âBless me, Poole, what brings you here?â he cried; and then taking a second look at him, âWhat ails you?â he added; âis the doctor ill?â âMr. Utterson,â said the man

GCSE English Language students have looked at the opening to Susan Hill’s chilling novel, I’m the King of the Castle recently. The novel makes readers think about their expectations and the way cleverly estranging(defamiliarising) characterisation can create unease immedia

Sydneyâs mind was like perfect amber. Things stayed longer in her head than even they thought possible! All Inclusions felt welcome in Sydney’s mindâ. Domenica laughed at her joke as if Sydney was talking to her in the room.Â â We declared ourselves collectors then Â Noraâ

‘It was a cold grey day in late November.’ Thus begins Daphne Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn. The dismal declaration of the weather foreshadows the uneasy tension surrounding the protagonist’s future new home at the Inn of the title. Â The specific details giveÂ realis

Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write. Ruth Rendell’s thriller A Judgement in Stone opens with a devastating clarity. Â We are in no doubt as to the killer, victim and the motive. Yet, what we are told, goads us into reading the re

Coup de Grace. The woman smiled at the tiny plasticine figure sprawled on the passenger seat. âYou enjoy yourself there whilst you can.â She nudged his head with her finger so that it lolled on his shoulder. âSo sorry about all your friends.â The womanÂ took a moment toÂ check her bag (

Phoenix writers met for a critique session last week, before the summer break. I wrote this in my sunny yard, trying to make a conversation between two people carry an undercurrent of menace. Nora may be rather more than a biographer and the apparent villain, Dominica, may have her ow

They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not any more, though. Now, when a murderer pays the penalty for his crime, he does so up at Bodmin, after fair trial at the Assizes. That is, if the law convicts him, before his own conscience kills him. It is better so. Like a s

‘Go on,’ whispered Mrs Danvers. ‘Go on, don’t be afraid.’ I shut my eyes. I was giddy from staring down at the terrace, and my fingers ached from holding to the ledge. The mist entered my nostrils and lay upon my lips rank and sour. It was stifling, like

(Chapter 14 Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca. ) This chapter intrigues students because it is Â Gothic and unsettling. The Gothic elements interface Â sexuality, secrecy and wealth. Â Here, the house-keeper Mrs Danvers, Â attempts to talk her young employer, the second ‘Mrs De Wint

Tusitala has been resurrected this week after yet another hacking. Many thanks to Shaun Kirk for giving CPR to my site! Â I am very pleased to discover my blog once again!Â The new GCSE English specification is much more demanding: Â I would advise all students entering year 10 o

Descriptive Writing: GCSE English. Here are several famous examples of descriptive writing. Can you identify how they create a sense of place, atmosphere and time?Â Pick up any techniques which you find particularly vivid or effective in the writing. Which passage is your favourite an

Prompted by Jenn Ashworth ‘s lively Â and expansive talk at Horwich’ s Thyme Coffee Shop, (hosted by the Thyme to Read Book Group), Â I downloaded Ashworth’s most recent novel Fell, onto my kindle.Â On this Â first time reading, althoughÂ I Â was acutely aware of the ins